Homemade Body Butter

I find that it is easier to make homemade products in small manageable batches while I am testing out new recipes. The below is a pretty good starting recipe for anyone looking to dive in and make some nice-smelling shit that will also make your skin soft.


Stuff You Need

1 cup sweet almond oil
1 oz unrefined shea butter
4 tbsp beeswax (I like to buy it in beads so I'm not constantly hacking chunks off a block of wax)
1 tsp cornstarch
10 drops/2 capsules vitamin e oil
10 drops essential oil (I used jasmine and lavender for this project)
Hand mixer or a whisk

First things first, you've got to get things warm enough for the beeswax to melt. Take the almond oil, shea butter and beeswax and either heat gradually in a double boiler or microwave in 40 second increments until the wax has mostly melted.

Transfer to a bowl and add in cornstarch and vitamin e oil. The vitamin e acts as a natural preservative to keep the oils from going rancid, and the cornstarch will make the texture less greasy. Add essential oils of your preference (go easy on these or every time you use the butter your entire life will reek of its delicious aroma for hours).

Now mix/whisk away to your heart's content. Oh your heart is content already? Isn't that sweet. Keep mixing. This will take at least 15-20 minutes. You are aerating the mix as it cools, which will help it keep a fluffy body butter texture. You can cheat and speed up the cooling by placing your mixing bowl in a bowl filled with ice (don't let any water in the mix!) but then you have to be diligent about mixing like your life depends on it. No breaks for you. Once your butter is sufficiently fluffy and cooled (it should have peaks like merengue or whipped cream) spoon or pour it into airtight jars. Store in a cool dark place.

Finished butter in the tubs on the left!

Stay tuned for the scrub recipe coming soon!

Momma's Stuffing

My mum went through like 15 stuffings before she finally found one that our entire family liked. This is that stuffing. Can be made veggie if you want, subbing in apples for sausage and veg stock for chicken. But I don’t want to, cuz I love pork.

Stuff You Need

3/4 cup chopped mushrooms (don’t skimp on these babies. Get the good stuff – chanterelles, shitakes, baby bells, whatever. Just not those little white pizza death mushrooms)

3/4 cup diced onion

1/3 cup celery chopped super thin

1/3 cup butter

1/2-3/4 cup cooked spicy Italian sausage

4 cups dried bread crumbs, the more grains the better (all the grains, yes)

Lots of chicken stock to moisten. Like oceans of chicken stock. Or at least more than you think you could possibly need.  I’d say probably more than a box/ a few cans of that shit. Besides, you can never have too much stock, since you should totally also be making gravy. Oh, maybe I should do a post on gravy…

Fresh Herbs! Lots of ‘em! I like sage, rosemary, thyme and a bay leaf. You can either chop them up super fine and mix them in with the rest of the ingredients (what I do), or leave them whole, on top of the stuffing, to be removed after baking.

Cook the sausage.  You want it to be in small pieces. If I'm feeling super ambitious, I’ll squeeze the sausage meat out of the casings before cooking.

Sautee all of the veggies with the butter, adding a bit of salt and pepper to taste.

Mix all of your stuff in a deep pan – bread, sausage, veggies, herbs. I add all of the accumulated juices too, because that shit is tasty. Moisten liberally with the stock. If you have bird drippings you can use those too for extra tastiness.

Stick your stuffing in the oven at about 300-350 degrees, but don’t forget about it for too long. When it looks like it’s starting to get toasty and dry out, take it out, toss everything and add more stock. Add some extra butter if you want, I won't tell. 

KEEP DOING THIS WHOLE DRYING THEN MOISTENING THING until you are sure your stuffing has been saturated and then re-toasted to your desired level of crispy. Since everything is already cooked, it doesn't really matter how long you do this part, but I like my bread crumbs to be a little crisp and herby on the outside and deliciously stock and butter flavored on the inside.

I’m pretty sure that’s it. Easy peasy.

Full disclosure: I hate soggy or jiggly foods, so in-bird stuffing is useless to me unless it has been removed from the bird carcass and recrisped in the oven separately. But you could totally do it in-bird if you want. 

Food, Glorious Food!

Since it is now January and my garden has pretty much gone dormant, I’ve decided this is a great excuse for me to post some of the recipes I’ve been meaning to get up here! I've been posting about all this crap I grow, with nary a mention of what it is I do with it!

So I don’t lose track of what I want to do, here are the recipes I’m planning on getting up here as soon as I sober up. Oh 2012, you are already the shit.

            -Jam’s Awesome Sauce Rib Rub

            -Momma’s Multigrain Stuffing

            -The Stew to End All Stews

            -Homemade Body Butter

            -Homemade Body Scrub

            -Save Your Life Salve

I’m sure there are plenty more recipes banging around this ol’ noggin just begging to be posted, but I like to have tangible attainable goals. So there you have it.